OK. I am wanting to do more reading about all phases of Texas history. Do any of you have recommendations for books about the different phases? I.e. Exploration,
Spanish settlement attempts, Spanish-Indian relations, Mexican period, American immigration and Texas war for independence.

Any suggestions of good biographies of major figures? Thanks for any direction to good reads

I enjoyed Michner's "Texas"; He uses fictional characters to tell Texas' history. "Three Roads to the Alamo was good - about Travis, Bowie and Crockett; "Lone Star" by Farenbach is an in-depth look into Texas.

"Lone Star" by Fehrenbach covers every one of the area the original poster asked about. Extremely detailed and comprehensive. I concur with others who recommend this book.

After Fehrenbach read anything by Robert Weddle, he'll also tell you about the French in Texas too.

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DP

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Indian Depredations in Texas

Thanks for all the suggestions. Think I will start with Lone Star.

Glad someone mentioned Indian Depredations; it is an antidote to all the junk portraying the original settlers as a bunch of zen environmentalists and goes a long way towards explaining why so many early anglo Texans were in favor of genocide.

The Conquest of Texas describes in detail why and how they went about the ethnic cleansing after fighting off Mexico.

Noah Smithwick's memoir is a superb account of what it was like to be a of the first generation of anglo settlers.

Go to the library of congress online and look at the Texas Slave Narratives for a taste of what that was like. In the 1930s the New Deal hired a bunch of writers in the south to interview surviving slaves and ask them questions about their lives during slavery, the war and in reconstruction and afterwards. It aint Gone With The Wind and it aint Kunta Kinte either.

On the Border With Mackenzie is good on the US cavalry and the border wars with the bandits and Indians.

David Montejano's Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas is pretty good on that subject and is a good supplement to Fehrenbach, who wrote a beautiful epic but left a lot out because he was interested in what might generously be described as anglo ethnocentrism. He saw the ethnic blend coming but viewed it with trepidation.

J. Evetts Haley's Charles Goodnight, Cowman is the best ranching history of early Texas ever written and you will recognize several of your favorite characters from Lonesome Dove. McMurtry loved that book and borrowed from it considerably.

There are a lot of splendid books about Texas and barns full of junk.

I believe that "john" Goodnight's first name was "Charles".



On the Border with Mackenzie is the only account I know of written by a cavalryman who was in the Red River Wars. His attitude toward "the noble savage" was not very PC.

Spoke to my dad, who has an extensive library:

Comanches - T.R. Fehrenbach- Typical Fehrenbach- Very good.

Texas Rangers - A Century of Frontier Defense.- Walter Prescott Webb. He said it was an old book written in 1935 . Very dry but very detailed.

I have not read either of these books but he said they some of the best of his "old" books.

The above are already recommended (and seconded here).

Also -

The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900, by Mike Cox (and sequential books).

Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas by James Bevill (a really good book on ROT finances - which drives much else).

"Empire of the Summer Moon"

I highly recommend it.

And the Charles Goodnight book by Haley is also a great read as are all the other books mentioned.

A Visit to Texas in 1831. A personal journal of a traveler who describes the daily sights and events while journeying through Texas before its independence. Great book

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Go to the library of congress online and look at the Texas Slave Narratives for a taste of what that was like.

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Thanks for this link Huisache.... I read a few of the narratives & they are absolutely fascinating.

Say you get one book and only one book...

It's Goodbye to a River. John Graves knows.

Sam Houston's slave wrote a narrative, in which he was very positive about Sam and said "he didn't beat me too much."

I think most slaves who were not on the industrial sized plantation system had complex relationships with their masters more on the line of a parent/child relationship that was sometimes, but not always abusive. There was also a bit of Stockholm syndrome going on.

Anyone have a good book about nacogdoches/East Texas?

Gunsmoke in the Redlands

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I think most slaves who were not on the industrial sized plantation system had complex relationships with their masters more on the line of a parent/child relationship that was sometimes, but not always abusive. There was also a bit of Stockholm syndrome going on

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Reading the narratives, it is evident that many slave owners considered the slaves to be as adopted members of the family.
There was often a familial love that is borderline disturbing to us now days as we struggle to comprehend the complexity of slavery.
It could have been stockholm syndrome, but that is more of a traumatic reaction.
It certainly is not the hollywood version of events

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Anyone have a good book about nacogdoches/East Texas?

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"Land of Bears and Honey" is fantastic.
It is general East Texas history....not specifically Nacogdoches

Pine tree:

True, if you were a slave that worked in the house or grew up playing with master's children but if you worked the land the Hollywood version is not too far off, as long as it's not GWTW.

I would encourage anyone interested in Texas history to read the narratives and draw their own conclusions.
You can skip around. I found most to be pretty consistent and redundant.

Pine Tree:

I have read quite a few slave and master first person accounts and while generalities apply there are unique situations. The slave experience in Texas is way different than Louisiana or Mississippi. In Texas if you only owned a slave or two you were probably right there with them working together to sustain your business.

I have to echo many of the previous suggestions ("Goodbye to a River" is a must for any Texan canon). Texian Iliad by Stephen Hardin is the most comprehensive military history of the Texas Revolution that I have ever come across. It's in-depth analysis of strategy and tactics sans any political commentary makes it a worthwhile read for the military scholar. If you want to travel outside of non-fiction and read a novel that captures a specific time in Texas very well, I would suggest "The Time it Never Rained" by Elmer Kelton.

I've heard great things about Kelton. He's on my to read list

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I've heard great things about Kelton. He's on my to read list

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Mr. Kelton has been compared to other western genre novelists like Zane Grey and Louis L'amore, but I don't even put them in the same category. He once said, "I can't write about heroes seven feet tall and invincible. I write about people five feet eight and nervous." Although the characters in "The Time it Never Rained" were fictionalized, Kelton felt that it was more of a reporting assignment, as he'd lived through the drought in the '50s in West Texas and seen these things happen to his neighbors. I would also recommend the Hewey Calloway trilogy ("Six Bits a Day", "The Good Old Boys", and "The Smiling Country").

Three Roads to the Alamo; about Crocket, Travis, Bowie

Better late than never. The last 7 months have been crazy busy. I am just now getting around to getting started on the books in this thread. Lone Star delivered to my door today. Looking forward to getting started on it tonight!!

AgBQ-00 said:

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Better late than never. The last 7 months have been crazy busy. I am just now getting around to getting started on the books in this thread. Lone Star delivered to my door today. Looking forward to getting started on it tonight!!

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Well, did you finish it yet?

Ha. Not quite. I had to force myself to put it down though. Reading about the Indians and the "old americans" as he called them. Had never heard of people predating the ones who came from asia. I found that all fascinating and really want to see the carved trinity river heads he mentioned.